This is my first kid, and thus not really sure what work-study actually consists of. College financing plan says 3k/year and 6hr/week.
So, how does it work? Once my kid starts college, they assign a job to him or is he expected to find a job for himself and have the payment made to bursar office? Also, 6hr/week is minimum or maximum? it essentially means one day/week.
Work study is not an actual sum you can deduct from your bill, the way a grant or scholarship is deducted. It’s basically the possibility that the student can earn up to the award amount, but it’s not a guarantee. The student will be able to interview for jobs on campus, and if hired, work up to 6 hours a week (according to the amount cited by OP - other students may be able to work a different amount of hours). Pay is hourly, based on hours worked, and it is paid directly to the student. There is no guarantee a student will be able to get a work study job - at some schools, jobs are plentiful, while at others, they’re hard to get. The student can always look for a job that isn’t work study, too.
Completely up to the kid to find the job and they get paid directly. My kid chose to work two jobs the summer before freshman year rather than depend on work study. She waited until she found a job she wanted to do for work study and has made very little but fortunately had a big savings (which of course is counting against her for next year’s financial aid so there are downsides to that method too).
Your student is eligible to earn $3000 as a work study job employee. For the year. The student applies for jobs (they need to start looking online as soon as these are available). The job they get will likely be designated as a work study job and will only be available to students with that award.
The student then works, and earns whatever amount they earn per pay period, and they are paid.
I think work study is great. The college employers are usually flexible with scheduling during things like exams or projects.
On most campuses, a 6 hour work study job is NOT a full day. It might mean 2 hours Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday evenings (handing out keys in the housing office, shelving books in the library). It is not a huge time commitment, and as Thumper said, there is usually tons of flexibility around exam time, when a paper is due, etc.
I had one work study job in the college library where the rule was if you couldn’t show up for your shift, you were responsible for finding your own replacement (always super easy to do). And another driving a campus van where you just told your manager you wouldn’t be showing up and they found your replacement (it was considered a desirable job because you got borrowing privileges for the van when it wasn’t needed for student transportation).
There will be nothing to stop your kid from finding a non-work study job- tutoring, yard work for a professor, server at a restaurant close to campus, etc. Sometimes they pay more-- but often with less flexibility than a work study job.
Only students with financial need are typically awarded work-study. Depending on the school it can be difficult to get a non-food service work study job, but there may be other non-work study jobs available. Depending on the school’s location, there can be many local jobs (and these can sometimes pay more $ too…such as babysitting or tutoring).